Despite several fashion chains struggling to keep afloat amid growing pressures in the retail sector, almost half of independent high street businesses see their future as “booming”, according to a new report.

Long necks, large chins, flapping ears, crooked noses: welcome to Ugly Models, a London modelling agency of a different stripe that will be providing several models strutting down the catwalk during LFW.

Walmart is in talks to purchase a stake of more than 40% in Indian e-commerce firm Flipkart, a direct challenge to Amazon.com Inc in Asia's third-largest economy, two sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.

Amazon Registry Services has launched a new .Bot platform and has partnered with Automat on Beauty.bot, an artificial intelligence-powered conversational messaging platform custom tailored for the beauty industry.